' The Longest Night ' & ' Crossing the Rubicon ': The Original Map Illustrated and Uncut Final Volume (Armageddon's Song) (56 page)

The stink, like a Parisian public convenience in mid-summer, hung over all the gun pits of the Para’s and French Foreign Legionnaire’s. GPMG barrels, glowing red hot were dropped into old shermouli cans filled with the crews urine and
those barrels still hot replacements were swiftly connected to the weapons bodies with barely a pause in the firing.

The Chinese infantry came on, and on, seemingly never ending and the dusty floors of the gun pits were becoming paved in spent 7.62mm brass casings and black metal links.

Bodies lay thickly about the positions, Chinese mainly, but paratroopers and legionnaires were evident in the mix, the result of the hand-to-hand fighting after the surprise rush into their lines. Once again, entrenching tools had proved their worth in dual usage.

  On the small island Jim took twenty men, each with as many RPGs and Javelins as they could manage and led them to the right flank of Charlie Company and behind the Scimitar tank troop that was there. Only two of the vehicles, as the third was shaking with the force of internal explosions two hundred yards away, and the large Guards Division flag on its antennae was crisping in the flames.

They had to plug the flow of amphibious armour crossing the channel, and looping around the side of the enemy penetration was the way he planned on doing it.

His companies were fully engaged so his battalion headquarters were providing this effort and James Artemus Aluicious Popham, Lt Col, was not going to send men to do what he would not.

They used smoke for cover from view, and the vehicles themselves as protections from small arms fire as they crossed a shell pitted taxiway and entered the ruins of the town.

The sounds of all-out battle from across the water in the direction of 2 REP echoed off the walls that still stood in the dead town as they neared the waterway and changed direction, jogging behind the vehicles and knowing that time was critical.

The dirty exhaust fumes of swimming vehicles hung like a haze in the still air above the water as the US paratroopers got into cover and made ready their weapons.

Climbing up the side of a Scimitar Jim shouted to its commander, a Corporal-of Horse, pointing across the channel to where the armour was still appearing.

“Hit those, the pillars, not the armour.”

His men began firing on the tanks and IFVs in the water, and the Scimitars turrets rotated, steadied and the cannons began firing three round bursts, the 30mm shells visible as they arced over the intervening space to impact on the brickwork.

It was working, the combined fire chewed away the brick of a pillar before moving to the next until the remaining ones were no longer capable of holding up the steel girders of the
building and it started to sag, slowly at first and then with then as momentum took over the remaining pillars collapsed and a great pall of dust hung over the ruin.

The Corporal-of- Horse laughed aloud but then s
omeone gave the world a shake, some giant shook the earth so that the ground and the sky rotated before Jim’s eyes, and when it stopped someone was screaming in agony. Blood caught the light as it fountained upwards, bright red arterial crimson, and with something of a shock Lt Col Popham realised that both the screams and the blood were his.

Kondor-1
38. 18° North of the Equator in low orbit.

It took some time and considerable expense to realign the ‘smart’ photo reconnaissance satellite. Its memory had several thousand shapes programed into it which, if seen, would trigger an automatic response. It was merely facial recognition software that included those things a human photo recce analyst spends hours looking for. From faces to firearms, tattoos to tanks and car number plates to carrier combat groups; it watched for them all as it orbited the planet because Kondor-138 would not ‘sleep’ between passes over the contested Spratly Islands. Wide awake, it remained alert for chance encounters.

CHAPTER SIX

Brisbane, Queensland: Saturday 15
th
December, 0214hrs.

The long voyage to Australia, and Operation
Matins,
ended as the first Ro-Ro entered Moreton Bay and discharged its vehicles at the docks. Having arrived via the longer, more scenic, route, and thereby avoiding the prying eyes of Chinese intelligence, the convoys had crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific during a night passage through the sparsely populated lands bisected by the Beagle Channel at South America’s tip.

Tank transporters and heavy plant low loaders supplemented the railways in transporting the
European forces and equipment into New South Wales, the final 350 miles of a 14000 mile journey from one battlefield to another.

F
ar south of the discharging convoys a tricky military maneouvre was being carried out by several units. A relief in place is an ideal moment for an enemy to catch two units while neither is fully deployed for defence. Deception plans and artillery barrages are tested methods of keeping the enemy too busy to cotton on to what is occurring under his nose. This night however it was being done stealthily and if the PLAN 1
st
Marines twigged what was going on they may well assume it was a rotation of companies, a frequent occurrence on the defence line in NSW.

Brigadier General Patrick Reed, 1
st
Guards Infantry Brigade, shook hands with Humphrey McGregor, commanding The Highland Brigade, and relinquished the Guards positions. Humphrey, his staff and the COs of the Cameron Highlanders, Argylls, London Scottish and Royal Scots Greys had arrived three days before to see the ground, touch base with the other elements and thereby ensure a smooth transition.

The Guardsmen, the Blackhorse and the small Queen Elizabeth’s Combat Team moved back to just east of Bowral, to a location at the foot of Mt Gibraltar, a large rock which may
possibly bear a resemblance to ‘The Rock’ ten thousand miles away but no one knows for sure, owing to the many thousands of trees that bedeck it, unlike its namesake of course. On arrival, a parting of the ways took place with the M1A1’s of the Blackhorse Cavalry, RTR and RGJ returning to their parent units.

Further south, 8
th
Infantry Brigade moved to a staging area near the town of Nelligan beside the Clyde where the CO of the Wessex summoned Sgt Baz Cotter and a number of other men to the cluster of 9x9s that made up battalion headquarters. The CO pinned an MM on his Baz’s chest, awarded for his part commanding the defence of the autobahn junction at Brunswick, and hand him the symbols of his new status, second lieutenants pips.

“Oddly enough.” the CO stated conversationally. “The convoys sailed with everything to fight a war but nothing to denote rank so I hope you don’t mind these being second-hand.”

Baz accepted the low profile fabric tab.

“Could I ask whose they were before, sir?”

“Your predecessor.” the CO said. “But don’t worry; they seem to have washed out well.”

Open-Season on second lieutenants only ended when they became first lieutenants.

The CO was still smiling evilly at the expression on the face of the newest member of the officer’s mess as he moved on to the next soldier receiving an award.  

The centre of Bowral had an old world feel about it, in Australian terms. Most of the shop facades seemed to visitors to be suffering a crisis of identity as some buildings seemed typically English, whilst the remainder would not have gone amiss in some Wild West boom town, with the exception that they were built of brick, and the bricklaying had a distinctly English style. Modern Australia is unique unto itself, but the Empire Theatre in Bong Bong Street was of the same design and appearance of many 1920’s or 30’s built cinemas in rural English towns. The café next door was pure Dodge City however. 

With the Australian 1
st
MP Battalion providing the security around the theatre the army borrowed it for the day, but despite the posters and advertising hoardings it was Pat Reed who was appearing in Cinema 1, not ‘Finding Nemo’.

“ROOM!”

Being ‘The Guards,’ rank was no barrier to being called to their feet or to sit to attention just as they had done as Sandhurst cadets on Day 1, or as a common ‘Crow’ at the Guards Depot, Pirbright, as was the case with the Welsh Guards CO who had played a bugle and side drum, with less than average skill, in the 1WG Corps of Drums before realising that obtaining a Queens Commission beat working for a living.

Pat Reed strode to the front of the theatre and nodded to the Brigade Major.

“Carry on, please.”

“SIT…easy!”

All the battalions COs and there Ops Officers were present, likewise the Life Guards, Hussars, Royal Signals, RA, REME, RE, RAF rep, AAC, Royal Loggies and the liaison officers from their hosts and from the 5
th
US Mechanised Division. The RTR Troop and Lt McMarn’s platoon of Royal Green Jackets had rejoined their regimental formations, which were attached to the Australian Army along with the rest of the UK’s 8
th
Infantry Brigade.

“Gents,
with the arrival of our vehicles we are now once more 1
st
Guards Mechanised Brigade of 1
st
Guards Mechanised Division. 2
nd
Guards Mechanised, the Scots with the Grenadiers 1
st
and 2
nd
battalions in their FV-432 upgrades, are across the way at Burradoo. As the Guardsmen here are all aware, it has been a very long time since so many units of the Household Division have fought together.” He smiled at his audience. “A word of warning though for any that do not know me well, do not get too comfy with the ‘mechanised’ title, you are likely to have more blisters on your feet than your arse.”

The tankers of the Kings Royal Hussars and the Life Guards looked quite smug at their infantry cousins discomfort.

“And now as time is short, I will not hang about.” Pat addressed the assembly with those preparatory words.

“Pens at the ready, fingers on buzzers…here we go”

Upon the cinema screen was projected a map of the PTO, pacific theatre of operations.

“As of 0900hrs this morning the Philippine islands of Cebu and Mactan
were officially liberated following the surrender of the Chinese 86
th
Mechanised and its attached odds and sods. So it is exceedingly difficult for the PRC to reinforce their 1
st
Army Corps here by air or sea. I have seen the necessary tanker plan that would be required to bring a single enemy fighter to Australia, and it is reassuring, to us, that it is unlikely to happen. The air assets they have here will not be reinforced” He looked at all the faces  and saw at least one furrowed brow.

“Any questions before I move on to the meat and veg of the orders?”

“Why are we moving into the assault now? Why not spare the guys and gals any more casualties and starve them out?” The RAF representative had a valid point. The war had inflicted heavy losses on all the armed services.

“A good point and a reasonable one. The answer is that civilians
in the occupied areas, and our own comrades in barbed wire stockades, are facing the prospect of starvation, and as the purpose of an army in a democracy is to protect the people, that is what we are doing.”

There were no more questions.

“Ground.” The map that now appeared had the Fleet Air Arm Base, HMAS Albatross,  at the lower left corner and the coastal town of Gerringong at the top right. Since its capture by the Chinese the airfield had been a major thorn in the side of the NATO forces in the mountains, forests and hills.

Pat described the area the brigade would be operating in, in generalised form, and the objective in greater detail.

“Any questions so far?”

There were none.

“Situation; enemy forces…since the enemy first landed their 9
th
Tank Regiment and 14
th
Infantry have been digging in and firming up around the town of Nowra, which the gentlemen from the Irish Guards will be well familiar with as I having been tasking them with recceing the approaches for the last fortnight.”

An overlay showed the results of the reconnaissance patrols with enemy positions, strengths, weapons and field defences such as minefields and wire. The fighting patrols that had also been recently sent to snatch prisoners had added to their knowledge of what they were facing.

“This is everything, is it Liam?”

“Yes sir, down to
the last tin can strung on their wire…as of 0500hrs yesterday.” The Irish Guards CO stated with absolute certainty.

“Sure about that?”